Egypt swept China in straight sets

10 March 2011

Cairo, Egypt, July 12, 2008- The superstar Ahmed Salah used his unstoppable hits to allow Egypt to edge China 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-17) in 74 minutes in front of about 4000 excited spectators in the second match of the fifth weekend of the intercontinental round of the 2008 World League here at Police Union Hall in Cairo, Egypt on Saturday. The Egyptian team appeared with a completely different performance than the first match and overwhelmed the situation all through to win their fourth World League match that improved their win- Loss record to 4-6, while china dropped to 5-5

Aided by the excited spectators the Egyptian team scored four successive points that put them 4-0 ahead after a group of efficient spikes from Ahmed Salah forcing the Chinese coach to call an early timeout. The superstar Salah continued his unstoppable hits that allowed Egypt to continue leading 8-2 at the first technical timeout (FTT). China started to arrange the block against the Egyptian attacks through the middle blocker Dawei Yu and decreased the point deficit to 10-5. The Egyptian reception was much better than allowed them to build up the attacks to the wing spikers that was used well by Mohamed Badawy and Salah and Egypt doubled the score 16-8 at the second technical timeout (STT). China tried to improve their backline defense against the Egyptian attacks but they failed to face the unstoppable Egyptian rockets that finished the first set 25-15.

In the second set China started to use the fast attacks through the middle blockers and also improved the reception and digging and succeeded to stay near Egypt till they had the first lead at the FTT 8-7. Egypt regained the first set performance and led 13-10 after a group of skillful setting from Ashraf Aboul Hassan and continued to use the block of Ahmed Mosaad and Abdel Latif Otham to stay ahead 16-15 at the STT. Again Badawy and the Salah increased with their concentrated hits the point deficit to 23-19. China improved a lot their block and defense through the efficient libero Qi Ren and deceased the difference, but with an unstoppable spike from Saleh Fathy Egypt ended the set 25-22.

The third set was the most competitive at the start as the Chinese setter Fudong Jiang started to lead the combinations by the net to back raw players and also to the wing spikers Shi and Yingchao Fang and the set went point by point by point till Egypt led 8-7 at the FTT. Egypt improved a lot afterwards and again Saleh Fathy and Salah spiked away from the reach of Chinese block as Egypt increased the score to 16-10 at the STT. China struggled to save the match and improved their attacks for a while but again Egypt led completely the net action to lead steadily till they won the set 25-17